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Business as usual at Whytemount Stud as Lecky Watson pays tribute to the late Ronnie O'Neill

Martin Stevens speaks to John O’Neill about his father's legacy and the team of stallions in Good Morning Bloodstock

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Lecky Watson: unbeaten over fences for Willie MullinsCredit: Patrick McCann

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens speaks to John O’Neill about his late father's legacy at Whytemount Stud and standing and supporting a wide range of stallions – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Lecky Watson, who remains unbeaten over fences after a decisive eight-length victory in the Grade 3 novice chase at Punchestown on Sunday, is paying a fine tribute to his late breeder Ronnie O’Neill. 

The master of Whytemount Stud was something of a folk hero in Irish jumps breeding circles. He single-handedly made the once overlooked Stowaway a champion sire and turned his small family farm into an industry powerhouse.

In spite of all that success, he remained humble, quietly spoken and unfailingly polite. His death last autumn after a long illness consequently prompted an outpouring of love from the bloodstock community. 

O’Neill’s widow Linda, son John and daughter Debbie have always been vital cogs in the machinery of the Kilkenny farm, and have now taken over the running of it. John admits to being bowled over by the volume of warm wishes received since his father’s passing.

“I’d say he’d have got an awful shock if he knew how many people loved and respected him,” he says. “There was a massive turnout at the funeral and a lot of kind words were spoken. So many people also came up to me at the foal sales in Fairyhouse and Goffs to give their condolences. It was actually unreal.

“He’d have been the first to admit he was only a small farmer. It was amazing what he achieved from nothing, almost. As recently as 20 years ago all we had was five or six horses around the place, and the main business would have been cattle and sheep. 

“It would be surprising if anyone ever achieved what he did again. You see a lot of studs popping up and trying to make it with a stallion, but they soon find out how hard it is to actually get anywhere with it.”

O’Neill came to work on the farm full-time straight after leaving school in 2010: perfect timing as Stowaway had taken off and was covering bigger books of mares. No doubt about it, he has inherited his father’s work ethic.

Ronnie O'Neill with leading sire Stowaway
Ronnie O'Neill with leading sire StowawayCredit: Patrick McCann

Ronnie O’Neill was very shrewd as well as hard-working, though, and had an especially keen eye for a broodmare prospect. For instance, Western Whisper, who produced smart performers Outlander, Western Leader, Mart Lane, Now McGinty and Ice Cold Soul – all by Stowaway – was bought by him at the end of an unpromising light racing career for just 3,400gns.

Lecky Watson provides further evidence of that. The seven-year-old is by home sire Valirann and out of Anno Whyte, a daughter of Stowaway and Anno Mundi, a Flat-placed daughter of Red Ransom bought as a four-year-old at the Goffs February Sale of 2004 for €9,500.

The family has since blossomed into one of the best dual-purpose pedigrees around. Anno Mundi’s half-sister Annie Power became a hurdling great, and is now dam of a multiple Grade 1 scorer in Mystical Power, while Classic winners Adayar and Billesdon Brook have appeared further down the page. 

Anno Mundi also did her bit to enhance family fortunes, despite sadly being short-lived, as O’Neill explains.

“Anno Mundi was the most gorgeous mare,” he says. “I remember Daddy always loved her. He trained her and Debbie rode her to finish second in an amateur race in Listowel, and fourth over two miles at Galway. In between she finished mid division behind the likes of Back In Front, Macs Joy and Sweet Kiln in a warm maiden at Navan under Kevin Manning.

“She was a good enough racemare, but she couldn’t be kept sound, so she became a broodmare instead and produced two black-type horses, Giantofaman and Stowaway Shark, as her first two foals.

“She then had a son called Sydney Thompson, who even I managed to win on in a handicap hurdle at Gowran Park, and she produced Anno Whyte as her fourth foal, but died while giving birth to her.”

Anno Whyte, by the iconic Stowaway like all her siblings, therefore had to be hand-reared. She was later trained by Ronnie O’Neill, and partnered by John when she made her debut in a Gowran Park bumper, but sustained an injury and was pulled up and immediately retired.

Anno Power: "
Anno Power: "She looks as though she could be black-type"Credit: Alan Crowhurst

“She’s turning into a very good broodmare,” says O’Neill a decade on from that inauspicious outing at the local racecourse. “Her second foal was Annie K, a filly who bolted up at Turtulla and sold to Paul Nicholls for a lot of money, but didn’t do a lot afterwards. Her third foal is Lecky Watson and her fourth is Anno Power, who has won her last three starts for Harry Fry and looks as though she could be black-type. She’s dead exciting. 

“Luckily, Anno Whyte is in foal to Affinisea, due in early February, and we have a three-year-old Affinisea full-brother to Anno Power going to one of the premier store sales this year. He’s a gorgeous, big, black horse. 

“We also have a four-year-old mare by Affinisea out of Anno Whyte. She got hurt as a yearling so was covered by Valirann last year, to produce a three-parts sibling to Lecky Watson. I’m looking forward to seeing that foal as it’s a real Whytemount pedigree, being by Valirann out of an Affinisea mare, out of a Stowaway mare.”

It really is remarkable just how self-sufficient Whytemount Stud is when it comes to coverings. All of the farm’s output appears to be by home sires, with some mares revisiting the same horse for many years in a row. 

“I’d say there’s been no National Hunt mare here covered by an outside stallion since the 1990s; we just don't do it,” confirms O’Neill. “We have four Flat mares, and they’re the only ones who leave the place. And Tally-Ho Stud is the only place they go, as we have a great relationship with the O’Callaghans.”

It was the faith that Ronnie O’Neill had in his own stallions that resulted in him showing the way with Stowaway, by breeding, owning and sometimes training many of his early stars himself. No doubt that promise of home support has inspired outside breeders to get on board with Whytemount Stud’s more recent sires much sooner.

Consequently, Affinisea – a lightly raced and non black-type son of Sea The Stars – has been one of the busiest stallions in Europe in the last decade. After covering a conservative 130 mares in his debut season in 2017, and 123 in the year after, he suddenly took off. His subsequent books, from 2019 to 2024, numbered (in chronological order) 229, 211, 325, 382, 269 and 246.

“I remember when we got him,” says O’Neill. “We were up at John Oxx’s to look at a different stallion prospect, but he caught our eye. We were told that they had been getting him ready to run in the St Leger but he was injured in his gallop before the race. 

Ronnie O'Neill with Affinisea at Whytemount Stud
Affinisea: well-bred son of Sea The Stars is all the rage after success with smaller cropsCredit: Patrick McCann

“To be fair to Mr Oxx, he kept us in mind the whole time, and when the horse was retired we got the deal done. He’s just the most gorgeous looking horse, and is a half-brother to Soldier Of Fortune, who was all the rage at the time, so he made a lot of sense.

“He started off with steady enough books but word gradually spread about him and it’s easy to see why, as he gets a smashing-looking foal and nearly everyone who sent a mare in the early days ended up getting well paid.”

He adds with a bit of a chuckle: “Then in the year of Covid I think all the farmers got bored in lockdown and wanted to get out on the road, so they decided they’d get their mares covered, and a lot of them ended up here. The horse covered massive books those years, and the foals are just starting to come through.”

Considering Affinisea’s earliest runners aren’t the result of such enormous crops – just 72 seven-year-olds and 67 six-year-olds – he has shaped quite encouragingly. Grade 2 novice chase winner Only By Night, Listed mares’ bumper scorer Avakate and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle runner-up Affordale Fury have emerged from the first generation, and exciting sorts such as Anno Power, Just For Love and Sixmilebridge come from the second.

“We’re pleased with what Affinisea has done so far, and Only By Night looked particularly exciting when she won at Cork last month,” says O’Neill. “His progeny might need a bit of time but he’s had 20 winners already this year and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of his bigger books.”

Elsewhere on the Whytemount Stud roster, Valirann has hit a rich vein of form, with Potters Charm maintaining his unbeaten status under rules in the Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle and Val Dancer winning the Welsh Grand National, in addition to Lecky Watson’s exploits. 

“He’s always been a decent sire of winners,” reports O’Neill of the Aga Khan Studs-bred son of Nayef. “He’s actually a pretty amazing horse in that he’s had a five-furlong winner [Drish Hero], a premier handicap winner on the Flat [Sionnach Eile] and three-mile-plus winners over fences like Val Dancer.

“He has a big crop of three-year-olds this year as he had five four-year-old point-to-point winners around the time of Covid, but he went a little out of fashion afterwards and has fewer two-year-olds and yearlings.”

Potters Charm ridden by Sam Twiston-Davies wins at Aintree
Potters Charm: Grade 1 winner is doing his bit for ValirannCredit: GROSSICK RACING

Feel Like Dancing, who arrived on the farm from France amid relatively little fanfare in 2020, has had his talents as a jumps sire advertised on the biggest stages by Dancing City, a triple Grade 1 novice hurdle winner at Leopardstown, Aintree and Punchestown last season and successful on his chasing debut at Punchestown last month. 

He was greeted with a book of 90 mares in his first season in Ireland, but endured a slump in popularity until he recovered to 68 last year on the back of Dancing City.

“Feel Like Dancing has his first Irish-conceived four-year-old runners this spring, so a lot hinges on how they perform in point-to-points; that’ll be the big test for him,” says O’Neill. “He still gets plenty of winners in France every week, though, and he produces a very nice looking foal. We sold a colt by him to Tally-Ho Stud for €40,000 at Tattersalls Ireland in November.”

Mojo Star, the well-bred son of Sea The Stars who finished second in the Derby, St Leger and Gold Cup, joined Whytemount Stud last year. He is being stood in partnership with his racing owner, Amo Racing. 

“We’re very lucky to have him,” says O’Neill. “He was a great racehorse. I remember watching him run second in the Derby on the TV and I said to Daddy then that he’d make a great National Hunt sire. Then when he finished second in the Gold Cup I thought we’d have no chance, but we managed to get a deal done. 

“Kia [Joorabchian] has supported him well with his own mares, including a Group 2 winner on the Flat [Persian Dreamer], so he’s been given every chance. I couldn’t say a bad word about Amo Racing, they’ve been great to deal with.”

Mojo Star is clearly a personal favourite of O’Neill, as he continues in hushed tones: “It’ll be interesting to see how his foals go, but I’d be fairly confident he’ll make it as a stallion, as he’s just the most gorgeous looking horse, and he had the talent on the track to back it up.”

Mojo Star finishes 2nd in the DerbyEpsom 5.6.21 Pic: Edward Whitaker/Racing Post
Mojo Star: Derby and Gold Cup second stands in partnership with Amo RacingCredit: Edward Whitaker

The farm is also home to Behesht, a blue-blooded son of Sea The Stars, and Manatee, a Group 2-winning son of Monsun. Both have covered medium to small books of mares in recent seasons and “have got to make a name for themselves”, says O’Neill succinctly. 

Again, like father, like son, he is also refreshingly free of glib marketing spiel.

Indeed, it really is business as usual at Whytemount Stud. Ronnie’s spirit of quietly standing and supporting a wide range of stallions, and giving every breeder who drives through the gates a good deal for their services, lives on. 

“We’ve got big boots to fill but we’ll do our best,” says O’Neill. “Daddy left us a great little empire here, and always made sure everyone was involved in it; we all had our own roles. We’ll make sure we keep it going the way he would have kept it going.

“He’s shown us, and everyone in this business really, that you have to keep backing yourself the whole time. You might have doubts every now and then, but if you keep going you’ll be rewarded."

Wise words for breeders, when it can seem as though the world is against them, with bruising losses in the sales ring, injuries and worse. Perseverance pays off.

“So no, nothing’s changed at Whytemount Stud,” sums up O'Neill with the tiniest crack in his voice. “There’s just one less face about the place.”

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